City of Steam Art Dev Journal: The Guard’s New Clothes

City of Steam tells us about the game’s art style’s evolution .

Let’s have a look at our art style’s evolution this time. There were our original city guard NPC models from our previous Alpha test stage.

Horrid, aren’t they? Checkered capes, huge paudrons… Sure, those might fit in some other MMO setting, but in ours, being more industrial/steampunk, the style just stuck out like a sore thumb.

The right-most guard, Captain Twyne, is a unique NPC with his own part to the game’s story. He was actually the winner of “the most popular NPC” contest from our Alpha events (yes, we don’t discriminate against NPCs, they can win too!), thus got himself a makeover; and boy did he get one. We made his armor more snug, detailed and even gave him some facial hair; even now he’s still the only unique guard using this NPC model.

The other NPC guards got a similar wardrobe overhaul, and look much more respectable now; their uniforms have a more Victorian air to them that fits the setting much better.

If you’ve played the game you’ve probably already seen them but there they are, much more respectable and far less gaudy. The colors, red, white and black, are symbolic of their home nation (The Heartlands), as per their flag shown below.

Some of the other NPCs have undergone similar changed, but much more minor. The Guard Toilers, for instance, used to be mainly blue, but are now red (same national reasons as the guards).

(And no, the red wasn’t just for the holidays….. ignore the hat. I said…! Ah, never mind…)

So there you have it, the new designs! We’re very happy with the changes; we hope you are as well. Keep an eye on our site for further updates leading up to Beta further this year!